By Del Quentin Wilber

Washington Post Staff Writer

A federal judge blocked the public Wednesday from attending a critical set of pretrial hearings in the prosecution of five U.S. security contractors accused of killing 14 unarmed Iraqi civilians in 2007.

The hearings, which are expected to last through next week, will examine whether the government improperly used immunized statements by the Blackwater Worldwide security guards in its investigation. The guards gave the statements to the State Department shortly after the controversial shooting Sept. 16, 2007, in a busy Baghdad square.

U.S. District Judge Ricardo M. Urbina said Wednesday that he was closing the hearings because he wanted to shield witnesses and potential jurors from pretrial publicity. He said he wanted to ensure the guards a fair trial.

The hearings in the District’s federal court were not listed on the public docket, and filings by prosecutors and defense attorneys over the immunity issue have been sealed. A Washington Post reporter learned about the hearings several weeks ago and was told they would be open to the public. Last week, a court clerk told The Post that Urbina intended to close the hearings.

In a letter Tuesday, The Post asked Urbina to reconsider. Post attorney James McLaughlin said the court should have put the proceedings on the open docket and given the public an earlier chance to challenge the basis for the closure of the hearing. He said concerns about the impact of pretrial publicity were “highly speculative” unless supported by factual findings in open court.

Urbina denied The Post’s request. He said the rights of the five guards to a fair trial outweighed the public’s interest in attending the proceedings. He said he was concerned about how news accounts of the statements might affect witnesses, some as far away as Baghdad.

The judge added that he did not see a way to partially open the hearings because they will deal heavily with grand jury information. Grand jury proceedings are, by law, kept secret.

The five guards — Paul Slough, Nicholas Slatten, Evan Liberty, Dustin Heard and Donald Ball — are charged with voluntary manslaughter and weapons violations in the killing of 14 civilians and the wounding of 20 others. The Justice Department alleges that the guards unleashed an unprovoked attack on Iraqi civilians in Nisoor Square while in a convoy. One guard, Jeremy P. Ridgeway, has pleaded guilty and is expected to testify against the others.

Blackwater, which has since renamed itself Xe, had a contract to provide security for the State Department in Iraq.

The Justice Department’s investigation has been complicated by many factors.

Agents and prosecutors were barred from gleaning information from immunized statements the guards gave to officials with the State Department Bureau of Diplomatic Security. When officials took the statements from the guards, the State Department was under pressure to quickly assess what happened.

The proceedings underway, known as Kastigar hearings, will probe how well investigators gathered evidence without being tainted by those immunized statements. If the judge finds the government’s case is tainted, he might throw out the indictment.

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By Anthony Shadid

Washington Post Foreign Service

BAGHDAD, Oct. 6 — In a dramatic illustration of shifting authority in the Green Zone, once an American preserve here, Iraqi soldiers confronted a security detail contracted by the U.S. government, detained four of the guards and beat them in a standoff last week that lasted at least two hours, according to Iraqi officials, the company and the U.S. Embassy.

The U.S. military negotiated the guards’ release several hours later, the U.S. Embassy said, and the four men were flown out of Iraq, for fear that charges might be filed against them.

Philip Frayne, an embassy spokesman, confirmed that an incident occurred at one of the fortified entrances to the Green Zone but said no American diplomats were in the convoy. “Information is still in the process of being gathered and evaluated,” he said.

Douglas Ebner, a spokesman for Falls Church-based DynCorp International, said the men involved in the Sept. 28 incident were employed by the company. He said that they were mistreated and that the company “has strongly voiced our deep concerns regarding this incident both with the State Department and with Iraqi authorities.”

A senior Iraqi officer with the Baghdad Brigade, the Iraqi army unit charged with guarding the Green Zone, also confirmed the incident but denied that the men were beaten. He said the confrontation escalated because no interpreter was available.

“The problem is that the PSDs,” an abbreviation that has entered Iraqi slang as a catchall term for contractors’ convoys, “don’t understand that sovereignty is in the hands of Iraqis now,” the officer said. “These groups still consider themselves above the law.”

Before a U.S.-Iraqi agreement took effect Jan. 1, regulating the U.S. presence here and outlining an eventual American withdrawal, contractors were immune from the Iraqi legal process under an order signed by L. Paul Bremer, the head of the Coalition Provisional Authority, in June 2004. At the time, it was unclear whether contractors were covered under U.S. military or civilian law.

The result was that not a single private security contractor was charged with a crime despite dozens of suspicious shootings involving Iraqi civilians. The legacy has made contractors one of the most loathed groups in today’s Iraq. In one of the worst incidents, heavily armed guards for the North Carolina-based firm then known as Blackwater opened fire on Iraqis in a crowded street on Sept. 16, 2007, killing 17 civilians, after the guards’ convoy reportedly came under fire.

Under the agreement, some U.S. contractors retain their immunity, but the Iraqi government, as it did in the case of Blackwater, can revoke or refuse to renew operating licenses.

An account of last week’s incident that appeared to be written by a DynCorp employee was forwarded by e-mail to The Washington Post. Several people said the details of the account seemed accurate, but Ebner said he could not confirm who authored it.

According to the account, the last vehicle of a convoy was stopped at an entrance to the Green Zone. Iraqi guards tried to get the private security guards to turn over smoke grenades. One of the private guards tried to find out who was in charge and started shouting at an Iraqi captain. A member of the contractor team then tried to photograph the captain, who grabbed the camera.

The Iraqi officer with the Baghdad Brigade said the security contractor hit the captain, although the account denied that. The incident quickly escalated, according to the account and the Iraqi officer.

“This is where the wheels fell off,” the account said.

“Our opinion is that they were being aggressive against us 100 percent,” the senior Iraqi officer said in the interview. “That’s not me as an Iraqi talking. That’s me as a professional soldier.”

The captain then fired two shots in the air, the account said. An Iraqi colonel arrived, along with at least five vehicles of Iraqi army personnel, eventually numbering about 80 soldiers. The security contractors refused to get out of their Suburban, and the colonel ordered a tank to run over the vehicle.

When asked whether a tank was ordered to crush the Suburban, the senior Iraqi officer replied, “No comment.”

Before the tank did so, the account said, the contractors got out, one of them at gunpoint. The men were cuffed and beaten, according to the Iraqi officer and the account.

“The Iraqis loaded them into their vehicles, putting one in the trunk/boot of the vehicle. They then drove away to an Iraqi base with an Iraqi sitting on the hood waving his arms up and down, screaming a victory cry,” the account said.

At the base, the account said, the men were beaten, some of them with a bar used for weights in a gym. One of their assailants was an Iraqi general, who repeatedly punched one of the men, then took part in the negotiations over their release, it said.

One “was beaten so bad that he was covered in blood and began projectile vomiting from the head injuries he was receiving,” the account said.

The Iraqi official denied that the contractors were hurt in custody.

“Trust me,” he said, “we didn’t beat them up.”

The account ended with a warning.

“In the past, people could shoot and not worry about the ramifications. Now, people must think, analyze the situation and make appropriate decisions,” it read. “Unfortunately, not all people are capable of doing that and many of them still see bad guys behind every bush, which just isn’t the case anymore.”

Special correspondent Qais Mizher contributed to this report.

By Robin Acton

One month after the latest electrocution in Iraq, U.S. Sen. Bob Casey has proposed an amendment to a defense appropriations bill that would hold government contractors accountable for the safety of overseas military personnel and civilians working abroad.

The legislation would close a loophole that allowed shoddy electrical work and other problems on American military bases to go uncorrected, the Scranton Democrat said. It would require the Department of Defense to review contracts to ensure they include language requiring contractors to immediately correct deficiencies, such as improperly grounded facilities or equipment, that could cause death or serious injury.

Casey’s amendment also seeks to ensure safe and sanitary water systems, and establish and enforce strict standards for preventing and prosecuting instances of sexual assault.

He has been an outspoken critic of the government’s defense contracting procedures since the Jan. 2, 2008, electrocution of Staff Sgt. Ryan Maseth, 24, of Shaler. The Green Beret collapsed and died when a rooftop pump shorted out and sent a lethal electrical current along water running through metal pipes into his shower in the Radwaniyah Palace Complex in Iraq.

Maseth is among 10 service members and civilian contractors in Iraq who died from electrocutions that could have been prevented, according to Casey.

The most recent occurred Sept. 1 when Adam Hermanson, 25, of Muncy collapsed and died in his shower at Camp Olympia inside Baghdad’s Green Zone. The Air Force veteran, who completed four tours of duty in Iraq, was working as a civilian contractor for Triple Canopy Security Service.

“We’ve had lots of investigation and lots of reviews, but, in my judgment, not enough in the way of answers,” Casey said. He said the Defense and State departments are obligated to provide families with answers about how the electrocutions continue to happen.

Maseth’s parents, Cheryl Harris and Douglas Maseth, filed suit in federal court against defense contractor KBR Inc., alleging shoddy electrical work killed their son. KBR denies responsibility for the soldier’s death, which brought national attention to the electrocution issue and prompted government inspections of facilities military personnel use.

Hermanson’s widow, Janine, said she does not know much about her husband’s living quarters or what he was doing in connection with the war effort because he was not permitted to talk about it. The dental assistant, who is staying with her parents in Muncy, said she learned about his death when she got a phone call at work.

“When he didn’t show up for work, they got worried, and a co-worker went to check on him. He was found in his room in the shower,” she said.

She described her husband as a strong, family-oriented man who did everything he could for his family and friends. They met while serving in the Air Force as they were preparing for deployment to Iraq and would have celebrated their fourth wedding anniversary five days after his death, she said.

“I never had to worry about anything when he was around,” she said, her voice cracking with emotion.

Read this article at the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review

By Kevin Whitelaw

Private security contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan have sparked plenty of headlines over the past few years, particularly after a few well-publicized allegations of abuse and shootings of civilians.

But it has been difficult to assess how much the Pentagon relies on armed civilians because their numbers have been unclear.

Defense Department officials now say that more than 18,000 armed security contractors are working in Iraq or Afghanistan under Pentagon auspices, according to a new report by the Congressional Research Service that was obtained by NPR.

The bulk of the gun-toting contractors — some 13,232 as of June 30 — are in Iraq, where they guard U.S. bases, defend convoys and serve as personal bodyguards for high-level officials. The remaining 5,165 armed civilians perform similar functions in Afghanistan.

These contractors are not supposed to engage in combat operations, but there have been a number of scandals involving private security firms, including allegations that employees of Blackwater shot 17 Iraqi civilians at a Baghdad traffic circle in 2007, and that guards working for ArmorGroup guarding the U.S. Embassy in Afghanistan engaged in ugly hazing rituals.

In both of those cases, the contractors were working for the State Department, rather than the Defense Department. But the actions of these private security contractors can reflect badly on the U.S. government.

Fanning Anti-American Sentiment?

“The perception that DOD [the Department of Defense] and other government agencies are deploying [private security contractors] who abuse and mistreat people can fan anti-American sentiment and strengthen insurgents, even when no abuses are taking place,” the Congressional Research Service report concludes.

But in these two conflicts, contractors have quickly become an integral part of the U.S. war effort, according to U.S. military officials.

“Iraq and Afghanistan appear to be the first two instances where the U.S. government has used private contractors extensively for protecting persons or property in combat or stability operations where host country forces are absent or deficient, but it is not the first time private contractors have been used for such purposes,” says the report. “According to government officials, both DOD and the Department of State would be unable to execute their missions in Iraq and Afghanistan without the support of private security contractors.”

Contractors are easier to hire, quicker to deploy and cheaper than U.S. government personnel. And they also free up much-needed soldiers for combat operations.

“Security is not just Blackwater,” says Michael Cohen, a senior research fellow at the New America Foundation who has studied the use of contractors. “Some are security guards protecting bases, which is far less controversial.”

Numbers Rising Sharply

Either way, their numbers appear to be rising sharply. In Iraq, the U.S. military reported that its armed security contractor workforce jumped 19 percent between March and June 2009.

Part of the increase is due to improved data collection, say Pentagon officials, who did not track the full number of contractors before 2007.

“One of the problems with the data is they only started collecting the data about two years ago,” says Moshe Schwartz, the Congressional Research Service analyst who wrote the report. “Because that data is still improving, it is difficult to get a perfectly clear picture as to the ebb and flow of the number of armed contractors in Iraq. It’s also hard to get a clear picture as to the type of work they’re doing.”

But the rise also represents a growing reliance on security contractors in both war zones. In Iraq, U.S. military officials are turning to private firms to fill new gaps that emerge as U.S. forces begin to draw down.

The dynamic is different in Afghanistan, where worsening violence has sparked a higher demand for private security.

Still, the Pentagon numbers represent only a portion of the overall number of armed civilians in either war zone.

The State Department employed an additional 3,100 contractors in Iraq and more than 600 in Afghanistan as of February, according to Congressional Research Service data.

And then there are even more private armed security guards employed by international organizations, foreign governments and private companies in both places. Estimates are rough, although analysts say the total number of armed civilian guards likely tops 30,000 in Iraq and 20,000 in Afghanistan.

“Less than half of the private security contractors in Iraq are working for the U.S. government,” says Schwartz. “The rest of those contractors don’t have to report their movements to the U.S. government, nor does the U.S. government have any ability to rein in their behavior.”

Armed Contractors A Fraction Of Total

Armed security contractors make up only a small portion of the overall Pentagon contractor workforce. The Defense Department employed a total of 193,674 private contractors in both Iraq and Afghanistan as of June (compared to a total U.S. military deployment of 189,678 soldiers), according to a separate Congressional Research Service report.

Security contractors accounted for only 11 percent of private contractors in Iraq, for example, while more than half of the contractors performed support operations on U.S. bases, such as laundry and catering services.

The Pentagon has increased its efforts to monitor its own contractors over the past two years.

The Pentagon’s surveys reveal that the makeup of armed private security contractors varies considerably between the two war zones. In Iraq, less than 5 percent of the armed civilians are Americans, while less than 8 percent are Iraqi. The remaining 88 percent come from other countries, such as Fiji, Nepal, Chile and Nigeria.

In Afghanistan, the overwhelming majority — some 95 percent — are Afghans.

This article was originally published at NPR.